Bulk Green Chile

I was up early at the flea market yesterday and noticed that the usual lines to have green chile roasted were pretty short, so I decided it was time to get our green chile for the year. In New Mexico, if you don’t grow your own, the cheapest option is to buy a box case (25-30lbs) or a sack (50lbs) and have it roasted. I opted to get Young Guns Medium from Albertson’s for $17.99 a case. Smith’s in Taos has already stopped selling green chile and SuperSave has a different brand for $19.99 a case. I’d tried the frozen, chopped version of Young Guns and liked the flavor to heat ratio. You might also want to pick up a pair of dish gloves, the green chile can burn your hands while you’re peeling it.

Once you have your box of chiles, you go outside and put your cart in line to be roasted. They’ll throw the chiles into a rotating cage with a propane flame and spray it periodically with water until they are tender and the skins are blackened. They put a trash bag in your box and dump the chiles into the bag. Load them up in the back of the truck or your trunk. You don’t want that kind of hotbox.

When you get home, empty out your sink and get some bowls. Put on the dish gloves and start rubbing the blackened waxy skin off the chiles. Pull of the stem end and get most of the seeds out. Rinsing in cool water as you go helps. You can freeze them unpeeled if you want to deal with them as you need them. I peeled all of ours but decided not to chop them but you can chop before freezing for easy use. After all the processing and not touching your face! You should end up with this much cleaned chile ready to freeze.